


Fire

by AriannJS



Category: Naruto, Sasusaku - Fandom
Genre: Angst, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-27
Updated: 2020-09-27
Packaged: 2021-03-07 15:55:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26680255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AriannJS/pseuds/AriannJS
Summary: Sakura didn’t expect that seeing him for the first time after a long while as he visited a branch of their business located at Konoha would ignite the flame inside her heart. She realized she was foolish enough to think that it has been extinguished a long time ago. Yet it remained, and it only needed one sudden meeting to be ablaze.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	Fire

**Author's Note:**

> Don't be mad at me after this please. Hahahuhu

She did what she could. She applied everything she has learned in the past 10 years for this surgery to be successful. Yet he still ended up in a coma.

Sakura stared at Sasuke's dark locks that were sprawled on the white pillow. It's been a week now, yet his eyes have been shut ever since. She checked his vitals and did everything she had to do for her usual rounds, but her hand lingered atop his before leaving his room for she knew that this was the only time she could do that.

Four years ago, she had held the same hand a hundred times and more. But now, it was only a fleeting memory that she hoped she’d be able to keep for as long as she could.

Sakura didn’t expect that seeing him for the first time after a long while as he visited a branch of their business located at Konoha would ignite the flame inside her heart. She realized she was foolish enough to think that it has been extinguished a long time ago. Yet it remained, and it only needed one sudden meeting to be ablaze.

Her realization was already too late, though. So within a month of seeing him around their hometown, she suffered from the burns on her own.

"You still love him." She heard a voice from behind, making her retract her hand from where it was.

Karin closed the door as she remained on her spot. Sakura couldn’t help remembering how she used to be a mere block mate in their last year of College. It’s funny how at the time, Sasuke was still pursuing Sakura. Four years later, the tables have turned.

"But he's yours now."

Karin ambled towards Sasuke’s bed and stopped beside Sakura, parsing her four-word statement as if unable to understand it. Her eyes landed on the hand where Sakura’s was on top of a few moments ago. And then she said, "Partly, I guess."

Her response made Sakura turn to her.

“Sasuke...he’s...I don’t know, Sakura. I knew it wasn’t a good ending between the two of you. And it took four years before he even started courting me, but…” Karin glanced outside the window, lensed eyes colliding with pink petals being swept away by the wind. “Sasuke’s always different every spring. He often looked like he was longing for something. But at the back of my head, I know it was actually  _ someone _ .”

“You can’t just assume that,” Sakura replied while she looked away. For four years she has convinced herself that there was no more Sasuke and Sakura, it’s not like lying to herself would be difficult now.

“I’m not assuming it, Sakura. I  _ know _ it. He was hesitant in returning to Konoha during Spring. He voiced that out to Itachi-san during one of our meetings in Oto, but Itachi-san insisted, saying it would be best for him and the business.” Sakura noticed how Karin’s fist clenched through her peripheral vision. “I understood the underlying meaning of that. And it hurts, Sakura. It hurts.”

Sakura knew better than anyone how much that hurt. So she told her, "Karin...if...if Sasuke-kun indeed wakes up with amnesia, I...I think it's best if he...” She swallowed hard. “If he wouldn’t remember me nor what we had. So that he could be completely yours."

The redhead almost scoffed. “What? You’re giving up now that he’s here? Is that how shallow your love is for him?”

“Do not mock the way I feel for him, Karin. It's different. I...I love him enough to set him free. To let him live his best life and not be stuck with me – a doctor who has no time for him and a future family. And a woman who cannot keep up with the demands of his relatives. I love him enough to let him go, Karin. So he could have a better future with you.” Sakura struggled to keep her tears at bay, but she blinked them back and continued, “So please, heed my request. I'll step out of your lives. Just...just don't ever think that I didn't love him the way he should be loved and more."

She then picked up her clipboard and made her way to the door, finally letting her tears flow as she exited Sasuke’s room. The hallway of the hospital became blurry, but she continued to pace towards her clinic so she could release everything there.

Was she really giving up now like what Karin had said? Or was this the right decision all along? She was able to suppress her love for him for the past four years, so there would be no problem doing it for a longer time. But somehow, it struck a chord when Karin described her love for him as shallow.

Was she the only one believing that letting go of him was the heroic thing to do when even she knew that both of them were still yearning for each other? Was she the one who gave up the fight while he was still trying to fight for them years ago?

Sakura sat on her chair and let her head fall on her hands. Sasuke was finally back; however, he was already courting another girl, mostly due to the demands of his family. And on top of it, he was in a coma, with deep wounds that she was bound to heal with the profession that drew her further away from him.

She cried her heart out that day after intentionally assigning a different doctor to do the daily rounds for Sasuke. She couldn’t take it seeing him in that state, while she wondered if there would still be a space in his heart for her, even just a little. She prayed for his recovery day by day, partly hoping that alongside his physical healing was the healing of their hearts as well.

Until the day came.

A nurse ran to her clinic to tell her that Sasuke Uchiha from Room 714 was already awake after 2 and a half weeks of being in a coma.

Sakura immediately wore her white coat and proceeded to the said room, only to be met with a crying redhead and a man who had just woken up that decided to kiss the redhead’s tears away, before crashing his lips onto hers.

The sight made her stop dead on her tracks, with her hands trembling as she held the doorknob. She couldn’t do this. She couldn’t take him as her patient knowing that it all came down to this. 

With quivering lips, she called out for Shizune-san who was right behind her. Sakura’s glistening eyes already told the older woman what she needed to know. And so, Shizune nodded before Sakura stepped aside to return to her clinic.

Maybe the fire in her heart was meant to be extinguished after all.


End file.
